Delta Air Lines uses RFID technology for real-time baggage tracking

Some airlines began experimenting with passenger baggage tracking and notifications years ago. A long time ago, baggage tags were encoded barcodes. United Airlines and Northwest Airlines scan baggage tags when luggage is loaded on and off the plane. US Airways joined the ranks in 2009. By 2011, Delta Air Lines was experimenting with real-time baggage tracking and notifying passengers, and then US Airways also started a pilot. While the idea of real-time baggage tracking is great, it relies heavily on the reliability of the tracking and scanning technology. Obviously manually scanning barcodes on luggage is not suitable for real-time tracking - airlines have long known that RFID is a suitable technology, and Delta Air Lines even started testing it in 2003, but RFID at that time was indeed too expensive. Around the year 2000, each passive RFID cost $1.

RFID is the abbreviation of Radio Frequency Identification. RFID technology first originated in the United Kingdom and was used to identify enemy and friendly aircraft in World War II. It began commercial use in the 1960s. RFID technology is an automatic identification technology. The U.S. Department of Defense stipulates that all military supplies must use RFID tags after January 1, 2005; the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends that pharmaceutical manufacturers use RFID to track common counterfeit products starting in 2006. of medicines. The application of RFID technology by retail companies such as Walmart and Metro has promoted the application boom of RFID around the world. At present, the price of domestic passive RFID tags is already quite cheap. For example, the price on an e-commerce website is basically about RMB 0.30 per tag.

The basic principle of RFID is to track objects through radio waves. Unlike barcodes, RFID does not require the reading device (scanner) to be pointed at the target, which means that using RFID can achieve great flexibility and accuracy. Moreover, to passengers, the luggage tag does not change and looks like a normal tag, although the airline will add a small chip to the RFID luggage tag. This is not the first time that airlines have used RFID technology. Air New Zealand, Qantas and Alaska Airlines have all provided permanent RFID luggage tags to frequent flyers. Although passive RFID is already very cheap, adding one to every luggage tag is a significant cost.

New trend: RFID technology handles luggage to facilitate real-time tracking of luggage

At the end of April, Delta Air Lines officially announced the use of RFID baggage tracking technology, becoming the first U.S. airline to provide passengers with real-time baggage tracking services. Delta handles 120 million pieces of luggage each year, and RFID will replace the manual scanning of barcodes - an industry standard that has been used since the early 1990s. The RFID luggage tag printer writes passenger and luggage information into the RFID tag and obtains it efficiently, accurately and automatically through the RFID scanner. By the fourth quarter of 2016, Delta Air Lines passengers will be able to know the location of their luggage at any time using the "FlyDelta" mobile APP.

Mr. Bill Lentsch is Delta Air Lines' senior vice president of airport services and cargo. "Our goal is to accurately control the information of every bag on every flight," he said. "Delta has invested $50 million in this effort. 344 terminals around the world have been transformed." In the terminals that have completed the transformation, the overall accuracy of integrating RFID technology into baggage handling has reached 99.9%, including baggage sorting and transfer processes. It turns out that the scanning accuracy based on barcodes is only 97~98, and requires a large number of people to scan manually. For passengers, RFID means better services. "Similar to passengers' desire to know flight plan changes through 'fingertips' operations, passengers also want to know information about checked baggage," said Mr. Tim Mapes, Chief Marketing Officer of Delta. "'Fly Delta' mobile APP is the first of its kind in the industry. , RFID technology enables interactive baggage tracking, which may become a new industry standard."

Delta's team deployed a total of 4,600 scanners, 3,800 RFID baggage tag printers, and 600 terminal-level readers to fully automate the entire baggage handling process, which can be completed on all Delta's main routes and connecting flights. Baggage tracking. In Delta's 84 main terminals, RFID Readers are installed on 1,500 baggage conveyor belts. If the baggage enters and exits the aircraft correctly, a green light will light up. Otherwise, a red light will light up to indicate that the baggage requires other processing.

New trend: RFID technology handles luggage to facilitate real-time tracking of luggage

Currently, if a passenger misses a connecting flight, ground handlers need to manually scan all luggage to find the passenger's luggage and affix the luggage tag for the new flight. With the RFID scanner, staff can quickly find the corresponding luggage. "We carefully studied every step of baggage handling and improved them to reach the industry's advanced level," Lentsch said. "RFID is a powerful Tool for Delta people to expand their leading gap." In the past 10 years, optimized processes and technology improvements Helped Delta Air Lines reduce its baggage error rate by 68%, making Delta the leader in baggage handling among U.S. international airlines. In 2015, Delta Air Lines' baggage handling performance was the best in both the half-year and full-year rankings selected by the U.S. Department of Transportation. While the overall investment is large, Delta and its travelers do reap huge benefits from it.